Ryan adjusted his Santa cap. The winter sun blazed, hotter than he’d imagined. As he welcomed the next child, Ryan kept one eye on Sarah talking to the women in front of her. Nathan and Justin had a solemn concentration about them. He began to sweat big time. Finally, his nephews stepped up. Showtime. “Ho, ho, ho! And what have we here? Are you two twins?” “We’re not twins,” Nathan said dismissively. “We’re brothers. I’m the oldest.” The boys did not sit on his knee. They stood like the older kids, and that tore off a little piece of Ryan’s heart. But he had a job to do. “And what would you like under your tree?” Drawing closer, they looked cautiously over their shoulder at Sarah. “We don’t want our mom to hear,” Nathan whispered. “I can fix that.” Ryan motioned to Sarah. “Can you wait over by the tree. Santa has his secrets.” Not looking happy, Sarah edged back. “You see, here’s the thing,” Nathan began. “We lost our dad.” His voice broke and another chunk of Ryan’s heart ripped away. Justin picked up. “Yeah, we need a daddy. Mommy says ours is not coming back ‘cause he’s our heavenly hero now.” He never saw this coming. Gutted, Ryan wet his lips. “Your dad must have been a very good man. I’m sure he felt bad about leaving you, but heroes have a job to do.” What was he rambling about? “Heroes give up their lives so that all families can be free.” Nathan rattled off. Ryan would bet a hundred bucks Sarah had used those words with the boys more than once.“....so we want Uncle Ryan.” Wait. What? Bending, he drew closer to the boys. “You want this Uncle Ryan to do what?” If they had an expectation, then he wanted to meet it. “We want Uncle Ryan to marry our mom so we have him for a dad,” Nathan said with maddening practicality. “Nobody else,” Justin added, stabbing one mittened hand into the other. “He’s the one.” The one? Was Sarah seeing other men? The waiting families were getting restless. “Got it. I mean, Santa tries very hard to make all Christmas dreams came true.” He gulped. “Anything else you’d like?” Both boys shook their heads. Nathan and Justin walked away with their shoulders squared. They looked proud, like they’d finished the job. He blinked furiously. “Are you okay?” one of the elves asked, leading a little girl in a green jacket toward him. “Sure.” But he definitely was not okay. Learn more about Christmas Dreams and Santa Schemes here. Amazon: https://amzn.to/2JlBPsi